Synthesis of 20-substituted chlorophyll derivatives with F-ring and optical properties of their less distorted chlorin π-systems

Abstract

Under acidic conditions, methyl bacteriopheophorbides-d bearing a variety of substituents at the 20-position were dehydrated in a 1-hydroxyethyl group at the 3-position to give methyl 20-substituted pyropheophorbides-a. In the same pot, the resulting 3-vinyl group was successively cyclized at the 5-position to afford the corresponding 3,5-ethano-chlorins as analogs of sedimentary porphyrins with two exo-five-membered rings. The 20-substitution is essential to the cyclization to produce the additionally fused F-ring. After the ring closure, the 20-bromine atom and acetyl group were removed by the action of the same acid to give the 20-unsubstituted product. The steric size of the 20-substituents affected the cyclization as well as the electronic absorption and emission of the 3,5-ethano-chlorins in a solution. The F-ring fusion suppressed the conformational distortion of the chlorin π-plane, partially regulating the optical properties: decrease of red shifts in Qy maxima by the 20-substitution and reduction of almost all Stokes shifts.